Dec 23, 2013
Dec 8, 2013
Nov 20, 2013
Oct 24, 2013
Oct 23, 2013
Self-programming: How choice actually works | Memoirs of an Addicted Brain
I have yet to absorb what thisarticle really means.
Self-programming: How choice actually works | Memoirs of an Addicted Brain
Self-programming: How choice actually works | Memoirs of an Addicted Brain
Oct 12, 2013
The Emotional Iceberg | Psychology Today
These are your icebergs. And, in order to understand this, you need to visualize the TITANIC coasting along without a care in the world until it hits the iceberg. But has it really hit the iceberg? No, it has not. What it hit was the TIP of the Iceberg -- the exposed part that is visible above the surface of the water. Everyone learns in grade school that, in the dark below, there is actually a ginormous mass of ice that isn't visible to the naked eye. Our first grouping of patients is like this. They present themselves as "okay" and "fine" because they haven't learned to communicate what is going on below the surface with their feelings. And this is where the treatment center professional's real work begins, because they have to help the patient identify the feelings they're experiencing and then teach them how to verbalize them (because the only thing feelings need you to do is express them).
The Emotional Iceberg | Psychology Today
The Emotional Iceberg | Psychology Today
Whatever happened to something else? | Memoirs of an Addicted Brain
How do you overcome that ultimate challenge? How do you cross that gulf? I guess the answer is to start building up other networks of meaning and value, before you’re able to quit, maybe even before you can seriously try. Or at least at the same time. (For me, returning to graduate school was a big deal.)Whatever happened to something else? | Memoirs of an Addicted Brain
Is Addiction a Rational Choice? A New Study Says Maybe So | Psychology Today
But all who work with addicts will tell you the same story—that those who are addicted, while they can remain sober for periods, will almost always relapse without some sort of help to change the way they live. Is Addiction a Rational Choice? A New Study Says Maybe So | Psychology Today
Oct 6, 2013
How Addictions Affect Family Members
by Linda L. Simmons, Psy.D.
Dealing with Difficult Emotions
When painful emotions seem to dominate one's life, it's time to take action. Family members also need support, encouragement, and, many times, professional help. Recovery is not only the desired result for the addict, but also for families. Once family members recognize their own need for recovery, the process may begin.
In dealing with difficult emotions, family members must be able to separate their own emotions from those of the addict. As hard as it may be to accept, family members have no power to control what the addict feels or what she does. http://www.netplaces.com/addiction-recovery/how-addictions-affect-family-members/dealing-with-difficult-emotions.htm
The Rational Choices of Crack Addicts Published: September 16, 2013
“He’s not saying that drug abuse isn’t harmful, but he’s showing that drugs don’t turn people into lunatics. They can stop using drugs when provided with alternative reinforcers.”http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/17/science/the-rational-choices-of-crack-addicts.html?pagewanted=2&tntemail0=y&_r=1&emc=edit_tnt_20130917
Addicted for Life?
“The knowledge that some neural changes associated with addiction persist despite long periods of abstinence is important because it supports clinical wisdom that recovery from addiction is a lifelong process,” says Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry.http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/09/24/addicted-for-life/59862.html
Oct 5, 2013
A Contradiction to My Choice
Ever since I started this Life, my mom would always ask me if I'm still using or when was my last time. Now, how does one, in my position answer this question? If it were just up to me, I would really want to tell the truth Everyone expects to be told the truth, but "Can They Handle the Truth?" How does 1 distinguish an addict? Addicts certainly don't ask other people IF they USE or are still using. It's simply just not done.
Why Addictions Are So Hard To Break
Peeling back another layer of the addiction onion
Published on August 15, 2012 by Jennifer Kunst, Ph.D. in A Headshrinker's Guide to the Galaxy
Published on August 15, 2012 by Jennifer Kunst, Ph.D. in A Headshrinker's Guide to the Galaxy
Using an addiction to deal with upset feelings creates the very problems it was intended to solve. Addictions backfire. The painful feelings that were to be avoided actually increase a thousand-fold. The deeper you get into it, the MORE you feel depressed, anxious, angry, and hopeless, not less. You LOSE control rather than gain it. In order to break the addiction, you must come to see that it does not deliver what it promises. If you can see it for what it really is rather than what you imagine it to be, then you have the chance to let it go.
Oct 3, 2013
Sep 25, 2013
Sep 20, 2013
Sep 19, 2013
Sep 18, 2013
Aug 31, 2013
Aug 24, 2013
Jul 6, 2013
The Relational Roots of Addiction
http://www.psychologytoday.com/em/127631
The goal is to begin replacing the abuse/dependence on substances with actual human connections;
The tragedy for so many of my addicted patients is not that they live in isolation and both yearn and fear closeness to others; it’s that they’ve come to the conviction that this is the only way to proceed.
Addiction provides temporary relief -- emotional regulation that was otherwise unavailable. It can make the addicted person feel temporarily "regular".
"... the child is often rebuked or punished for “complaining” or “making trouble” by drawing attention to his or her pain and despair. Such pain is dismissed, minimized or ignored. Thus to even acknowledge the pain of the abandonment or injury is “wrong,” since it rocks the boat, draws the risk of being exiled, perhaps forever.
Such terror makes an imprint on the nervous system that is hard to change; a traumatized child must develop maladaptive behaviors and beliefs to survive this dark and chaotic world, to avoid “burdening” those close to her with her very human developmental needs. Best if these needs just go away and never come back.
...they are an inseparable part of us... They demand soothing, and will find it, even unconsciously, via drugs or alcohol.
Thus drinking or using becomes a “provisional” relationship to fill in the psychic cavities left by these early traumas. The fractured, wounded person is able to satiate, soothe or stimulate himself to the point of finally feeling whole! This is the euphoria reported by those who learn to love booze or drugs, which become so much more reliable than anyone or anything else before. Finally, one is able to regulate and not feel so out of control, fractured or wounded.
...the strange paradox that the more a patient and I accept drugs or alcohol as providing some kind of essential emotional/relational function, rather than being simply “wrong”, the easier it is to give up.
The goal is to begin replacing the abuse/dependence on substances with actual human connections;
The tragedy for so many of my addicted patients is not that they live in isolation and both yearn and fear closeness to others; it’s that they’ve come to the conviction that this is the only way to proceed.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)